


Unanswered Questions

by SilverCyberlink



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Dark and Emotional, F/M, Mystery, Secrets Revealed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-31
Updated: 2014-11-09
Packaged: 2018-02-23 08:29:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2541083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverCyberlink/pseuds/SilverCyberlink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Lots of people have secrets. Deep down inside of us. Untold facts, unknown things, unanswered questions. We're all hiding something, whether a huge secret or a tiny one. Sometimes, these mysteries can be dangerous. They can threaten one person, two people, an entire planet even. Many secrets make up my past life, but the darkness shrouding the truth is lifting...and things will never be the same."</p><p>Set from the point of view of Ashura the Hedgehog, this is a dark and emotional tale of the shadows of Ashura's past life returning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Worrisome Thoughts

The rain lashed down hard on the cobblestone road as I walked slowly down the alley. Lights flickered inside the high-rises that bordered the path. Water was cascading down the buildings like someone had just poured an enormous bucket on top of the city. My fur rustled in the slight breeze, and it felt nice, despite the biting chill outside. Thunder clattered somewhere near by, and I quickened my pace. I wasn't going anywhere in particular, but suddenly, the storm had come out of nowhere. I had nothing much to do, so I just decided to go home. A jagged bolt of lightning hit the ground dangerously close to me, illuminating the street in blue and white, but I wasn't bothered. The rain was pouring more and more, but I didn't care. The streams of water from the buildings were all over me, but I didn't mind. My mind was a floating balloon, flying up into the clouds of my memories, my imagination, and my thoughts. I rested my hand against a nearby window. The glass felt cool to the touch, and I closed my ruby-red eyes, disappearing into thought. I eventually turned around to head back home. Despite the fact that the other way was quicker, I decided to stay in the cold and the rain for longer.

As I pulled open the wooden door, the warmth of the mansion enveloped me like a cocoon. The marble walls were bathed in a lemon yellow glow, and the polished wooden floor gleamed in the light inside. I took off my soaked jacket, ensconced myself in a comfortable chair, and put on my cobalt blue headphones. "A bit of Röyksopp always helps on a day like this", I thought as I switched on my CD player, propelled into daydream by the opening chords of "Running to the Sea". I listened for a few minutes before the beautiful sound was interrupted by a door opening. I looked up to see Voltage in front of me. Voltage was my best friend, and I had known him for many years. His orange fur was as bright as a light bulb; sometimes it seemed to glow very slightly. His black hair covered quite a fair bit of his face, including one of his eyes, although he could still see perfectly. There was always a very faint yellow aura of electricity around him. At birth, his parents realized he had inherited their electrokinetic abilities, and had especially trained him for the ongoing wars against Evil Master. His personality was very chipper and enthusiastic, although he could get very stern sometimes.

"Hey Ashura, what's up? Hope you're doing well." He greeted me with a casual wave, but he suddenly whisked his hand down as his smile faded. "Looks like something is bothering you. Anything I can help with? Want some Hyper Melon?".

"No thanks, not now..." I replied coolly as I stood up to go to my room. Something was bothering me indeed. Something no one knew. Many things actually. Climbing up the granite staircase, I peered down at the sparkling bands of silver lining the staircase. The sound of my footsteps echoed around the halls as I walked towards my bedroom. The sun was setting, casting a peachy-pink glow through the windows. As I reached the door, as green as a newly-grown tree, I pulled it open and sat down at my desk, clouded in what seemed to be a mix of thought and worry. No one knew just what was going on inside my head. The ghosts of my past life had come to haunt me. I looked out of the window again, to see the skies turn a surreal but beautiful shade of purple. The pitch-black cloak of night was finally settling. Just then, I heard the familiar click and creak of the door being opened. As I turned my head, I observed the figure in front of me to found out that it was Naomi. She was a very good-natured person, friendly and kind-hearted. Always willing to help, she was far from, no, the exact opposite of distant and cold. Her eyes were as yellow as amber, and whenever she noticed someone who needed help, they seemed to light up with care and concern. Her head was covered in a cascade of pink and black hair, and all things considered, she was pretty much the girl of my dreams. Except she was real. As she came over, Naomi seized the opportunity to speak.

"Voltage was right. You do look worried about something..." she spoke quietly as she sat down next to me. I looked at her with an expression of concern and approval on my face.

"Yes, you're right." I replied nearly silently. It was very dark outside, and shadows seemed to ooze into the room. "I think I should tell you about what's going on. It's just memories of times long past. Old secrets that have come to my mind again. But yeah, I'm quite good actually. So, Evil Master base raid tomorrow? See if Matthew has rebooted the TSS computers yet."

With that, Naomi left, the empty feeling of being alone filling me up. Tomorrow was yet another attempt of Team Sword Shockwave to shut down the power station in Evil Master's base. Despite Evil Master being your average world-dominating villain, and really no one thought of him as especially dangerous, he was responsible for the anger, the grief, the sadness. All of these negative emotions swirling around deep inside me, he created. My personal fight against him has been going on since I was only 10, a long time ago, little more than faded memories, clouded in the mists of time.

I closed my eyes, filling up my head with more positive things to think about. Without knowing, I slowly trailed away to sleep...


	2. Base Raiders

The sound of the cars rocketing down the highway woke me up as the luminescence of the early morning sun swept through my window. Everything was a blur at first, but the image in front of me cleared, as I noticed a suit of onyx black armour next to my bed, threaded with streams of fern green. I looked up at the clock above me, yawning quietly. 7:21am. Time for the base raid. I got up, putting on the suit of metal, while running noisily into the hallway. Quite a few of my teammates were already awake, also wearing the special armour suits, which were crafted from a very rare mineral, only found in the heart of a tiny desert moon of Zyros 6. All of them were highlighted with coloured lines, twisting around the solid material. One of the hedgehogs was Voltage, who went up to me, talking in both a serious and enthusiastic manner.

"So, I guess we're ready!" he nodded as he pulled a switch on the marble wall, triggering an alarm. Everyone then ran down the staircase and into the basement, as a heavy steel door was flung open, revealing a room featuring a gigantic digital screen that lined the front of the chamber, an arrangement of seats, and a metal table with complex diagrams strewn across it. The walls were made of granite, the deep grey brightened by the flicker of a lone yellow lightbulb. As everyone sat down calmly, Voltage walked out to the screen,  switched it on, and started explaining our goal.

"Our job today is to shut down Evil Master's magma generator, which is the new primary power source for his base." he declared neutrally as the gathered team started exchanging words of approval. Gesturing towards a diagram on the neon-green screen, Voltage continued. "We shall enter from Maintenance Hatch 131, on the west side of the building. Next, we'll have to find our way down and exit through Hatch 283, all while not being spotted by cameras. You up for a challenge?". The assembled crowd applauded him, and started to filter out of the compacted room.

The swirling, writhing shadows consumed the torn pavement in the back alley as the lone white beam of a searchlight cut through the shade, shooting by speedily as it came to glow upon the two guards standing at the mouth of the path. They were both wearing the standard Evil Master battle armour, red with pieces of maroon and black metal. Suddenly, there was a clatter and the familiar "whumth" of a distant explosion. The two peered out from behind the wall, unaware of Naomi standing in the gloom, tiny sparks crackling from her gloved hands, standing no more than a couple of metres behind them. Suddenly, one of the guards heard a clang of metal, echoing crazily in different directions, but he disregarded it. Suddenly, he was caught breathless after hearing a dull thud and felt something slam into him. He could feel consciousness slip away from him as he fell soundlessly to the ground. Uttering a cry of surprise and anger, the other guard swung his sword in front of him, ready to strike down the enemy. But he didn't get a chance. A burst of flames shot out from Naomi's outstretched palms, the fire swallowing him into it's extreme heat. Shrieking, the guard threw off the burning plates of metal protecting him and ran for his life. He didn't notice Naomi walk away. He didn't notice Voltage and I silently slip into a maintenance hatch. He didn't notice anything.

The thick stench of machine oil wafted through the low metallic tunnels as I crouched down and began squirming through the shafts. It was a very tight fit, but the three of us managed to get in. As we shuffled around, silence fell everywhere. There wasn't a sound, except for the faint thuds that we made trying to move. All of a sudden, a loud whirring started, fading in and out. I motioned for us to stay still as I peered around a turn in the path. The metal began vibrating strongly as I was received a great shock: an EM service robot was heading straight towards us. It was plated in gleaming pale steel, with two fuzzy yellow dots for eyes. It had a standard manipulator arm, about as long as your average ruler, with what seemed to be some kind of drill at the end. It beeped curiously, whirring around the corner. Out of nowhere, a sword was thrust through it, and it's head began turning rapidly. Sparks and smoke were everywhere, and flames were pouring out of the damaged robot. Quickly, I opened the grill covering the shaft ceiling and emerged in a vast and extremely dark chamber.

As my two friends heaved themselves out of the small gap, a lonely lightbulb flickered into life, casting a dim spread of warm light across the hall. The high-standing walls were splattered with spots of ugly brown rust, which ate away, slowly but surely, at the metal structure. A twisted maze of balconies, some parts torn off, swirled around the upper parts of the room, while gears, motors and other mechanical paraphernalia littered the floor, grey as storm clouds, around a heaped mess of wooden crates.

"Guys, I think you might want to look over there." Naomi commented curiously, gesturing towards a heavy blue door with a pane of glass in the middle. I smiled at her, as I went over to look inside. I made an attempt to break it with my sword, but the glass was very thick and durable, and inevitably, I gave up and decided to observe the other room instead.

"Oh, no. No, no, no." I exclaimed in shock as I turned away from the door. "We've got to get out of here...". As I called out to the others, more lights came on inside the room, and out of nowhere, walking into the place like he didn't care, was my long-time enemy. Evil Master. His fur was grey and purple, each colour mixing in irregular patterns, and his body was covered in cybernetic parts, which pulsed with electricity. He held a futuristic looking gun, charged with some kind of blue energy that swirled and spun inside it's compartment.

"So, rebel hedgehog, we meet yet again..." he laughed darkly as he took a step towards the trio, holding his weapon towards them. He looked around for a moment, but continued his speech as he fixated his gaze on me. "...and it looks like I have an advantage. So why don't you do a good thing and surrender? You know yourselves it's no use-" his sentence was cut short as Voltage angrily spun around and shot a ball of electricity at him, which was guaranteed to disable his cybernetics for a few minutes. Evil Master started coughing as he was flung back by the sphere, but he returned the favour with a beam of energy from his weapon. Voltage winced in pain, clutching his arm as he gave Evil Master a dirty look. It looked as if a full-scale battle was about to begin. With the sword raised high above my head, I leaped towards Evil Master, but he shot out his mechanical arm, pinning me to the wall. He gripped tighter and tighter, tearing the breath out of me, crushing me bit by bit. A maniacal smile twisted upon Evil Master's face as he watched my agony. I tried shouting out to my friends, but I couldn't. With one last gasp, I fell limply to the ground, and everything went black.


	3. Ghosts of a Life Long Past

The falling snow brushed gently against my fur, as I walked through the ice-capped trees. The sky was covered in soft snowflakes, which seemed to be like tiny white butterflies, fluttering against the eternal blue, falling lightly to the ground. Winter had arrived, bringing it's dreamy afternoons and shivering chill along with it. Leaves from the trees above floated down every now and again, an intricate dance, before spreading themselves across the path like a thick green blanket. A big smile crept upon my face as I continued walking.

My eyes burst open, but all I could see was a dark blur. I realised with a start that I was in an Evil Master prison cell as the picture cleared. It was crafted from stone and metal, the empty space looking out into the hallway shielded by a translucent blue laser wall. I tried to sit up, but it was agony, like every bone in my body had been broken. Perhaps they did, after what Evil Master did to me. As the minutes slunk past, I closed my eyes, and began to walk through my past life again. Old memories were returning.

All of these thoughts about happy times in my past disappeared with a flash, leaving the strange contraption I saw earlier lingering in my mind. It was a strange rainbow sphere, with twisted wires coiling like serpents around what appeared to be seven metal poles. Each one had a small cup-like object fixed to the top, and I realised what they were. Holders for the seven Chaos Emeralds. I knew how strong the force of all seven was, and I knew that if he needed the entire set, he was using them for something very powerful and dangerous indeed. I opened my eyes again, and I caught a glimpse of one of the guards rushing past me in a quick patrol routine. I shifted my thoughts to other things in my life. Things that are known as "everyday", but are a rarity for me. Those special moments of peace and quiet. A time to relax and forget about these ongoing fights. I thought about it, remembering that I hadn't seen my parents in a very long time. Things like this just seemed to fade away.

I finally gave myself the strength to stand up, and I leaned against the grimy stone forming the back wall of the cell. I was waiting for the guard to move somewhere else, a chance to break out. Something suspicious was going on in the inner reaches of the base, and I had to find out what. It had some kind of link with my past, and I would need to talk to old friends and rivals to solve the puzzle. There were many things I was prepared to investigate, but first, I had to find a way out. I looked outside again. The guard had disappeared somewhere else. Now was my chance. Using as much mindpower as I could, I tried charging up a sphere of darkness energy, but it failed. Another attempt, and I figured out that the cell was contained within a power-draining forcefield. I tried using my sword against the power cells keeping the laser wall active, cutting through them silently like a knife through butter. With a strange fizzing noise, like a bottle of soda being opened, except louder and more mechanical, the barrier disappeared.

More arriving soon.

 


End file.
